OpenAI on Tuesday completed its recapitalization, formalizing a structure in which its nonprofit arm, now called the OpenAI Foundation, controls the for-profit entity. The foundation holds a 26% stake in the new public benefit corporation, OpenAI Group PBC, valued at approximately $130 billion on paper. Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion since 2019, holds a 27% stake worth about $135 billion on an as-converted diluted basis.

The agreement extends Microsoft’s intellectual property rights over OpenAI’s models and products through 2032, including any models developed after AGI, though consumer hardware is excluded. Microsoft loses its right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider, but OpenAI has committed to purchase an incremental $250 billion of Azure services. Any declaration of AGI by OpenAI must now be verified by an independent expert panel. Microsoft may also pursue AGI independently.

On a same-day livestream, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI is tracking toward an intern-level AI research assistant by September 2026 and a fully automated ‘legitimate AI researcher’ by 2028. Chief scientist Jakub Pachocki described such a system as capable of autonomously delivering on larger research projects, and said deep learning systems might be less than a decade from superintelligence. To that end, Altman said OpenAI has committed to 30 gigawatts of infrastructure, a $1.4 trillion financial obligation over the next few years.